In this YouTube monologue, the speaker addresses parents of young adults in their twenties, sharing personal anecdotes about his own children to illustrate a simple yet powerful parenting technique: regularly acknowledge and celebrate any forward progress, no matter how small. He explains that consistent, sincere praise—focused on effort, breakthroughs, and personal growth—helps young adults feel seen, heard, and internally validated, which in turn accelerates their confidence and development. The speaker stresses the importance of avoiding condescension, asking the child how the achievement felt, and extending praise beyond major milestones to everyday attempts, even when they end in failure. He concludes with a call to action, urging viewers to reflect on when they last expressed pride in a young adult and to share their thoughts in the comments.
Chapters
If you're the parent of a 20-something and they're stuck in making progress, I want to share some stories with you that might be able to help you. This is what I've experienced in my own life with my kids. And that is when I congratulate them on something they did, some forward momentum, some forward progress, a breakthrough of It can be really small or it can be really big. It doesn't matter. When I acknowledge that breakthrough, I find that they grow faster. I'll give you a quick example. My daughter recently found a great group of friends where she feels seen and heard. And this has exploded her confidence. And she's doing all sorts of things that she previously wouldn't have done. Going out to events, going, you know, just being in the mix, being in environments that she was not comfortable with. And that's been huge. And I acknowledged that. And I said to her, I was like, "Listen, I've noticed this real big change in you. I've noticed that your confidence has exploded and I'm really proud of you and your mother is too." And that's all I said. And it's just amazing when you do this on a more regular basis. You can't do it just on the birthdays and say, "Hey, I've seen how much you've grown in the last year," and the card and stuff like that. No, you have to do this on a regular basis. You have to acknowledge any breakthrough that they've had, any area where they thought was scary and now they've done it. I've seen, you know, again, just in my own You know, with my own kids, I've seen this so many times. There are times that my daughter, you know, would not do public speaking. And then all of a sudden she did. And the world didn't eat her up. Everything was fine. And I said, "How do you feel?" I think that's also an important thing to note is that it's not only the external validation, but it's also asking them, how did it feel? So they get the internal validation as well. So this is the best method I've seen in my experience to help my kids grow. Because I know that when people feel seen and heard, they grow. I've seen this so many times. And it's just a reminder that if you haven't told your child, If you haven't told your young adult how proud of them you are, how excited you are for them, how they made this breakthrough, you have to acknowledge that you're not seeing them as the 12-year-old version of themselves, the 15-year-old version of themselves, the 18-year-old version of themselves, or even the version of themselves last year. You have to tell them on a regular basis that you're proud of them. And again, you don't want to do it in a condescending way. You just want to do it as a matter of fact. It can be a fist bump. It can be, "Hey, good job." And it doesn't have to just be on an accomplishment. It can be for effort. Even if they went and tried something and they failed, congratulate them for the effort. So the question I have for you is, when was the last time you told your young adult or anyone in your life that you are proud of them? That you acknowledged that they are not the same person that they were 6 months ago, a year ago. When was the last time you did that? So put a note in the comments and I'll see you in tomorrow's video. Thanks.
